Slide bearing carrier locater

ABSTRACT

A slide bearing carrier locator includes a bearing carrier having rollers disposed between a carrying rail and a sliding rail, a support holder provided at the front end of the carrying rail for the sliding rail to hold against the support holder to slide, and a retaining surface provided on the carrying rail. A stopper unit is provided on the bearing carrier. The stopper unit comprises a locating portion and a release portion. The locating portion has a stopper end in relation to the retaining surface of the carrying rail to prevent the bearing carrier from moving backward. The release portion has a protrusion in relation to a side panel of the bearing carrier. When the sliding rail is inserted relatively to the carrying rail, the sliding rail compresses the protrusion for the bearing carrier to move backwards.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a slide bearing carrier locator, and more particularly, to a bearing carrier having a stopper unit to locate relatively to the slide and a release portion disposed in relation to rollers of the bearing carrier to release the bearing carrier located by the slide.

(b) Description of the Prior Art

A slide used for a drawer or similar object is usually comprised of two or three sections of sliding rails to slide on those rails by means of one set or two sets of bearing mounted among those rails. A bearing carrier is provided to contain rollers to roll on the rails for the bearing carrier to movably connect to the sliding rails. Whereas it is necessarily in most cases to remove the drawer or similar object mounted on the slide by the furniture manufacturer or the consumer, the slide is provided with the function of disengaging the drawer or similar object from the slide, either in the configuration of two or three sections, essentially by pulling out the rails connected to the drawer or similar object. To consider the necessity of restoring the drawer or similar object to the slide and maintain the normal mechanism of the product, the bearing carrier providing the connection by sliding must be located at the front end of a fixed rail upon pulling out the rails so to facilitate the rails to be once again inserted into the bearing carrier and further guided into the linear tract of the roller.

The prior art to locate the bearing carrier at the front end of the rails having been taught in Taiwanese Publication Nos. 252316 (please refer to the Background of U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,821), 491054 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,372), 491055, 498730 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,722,750 and 6,220,683), M248319 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,945), and Invention Early Publication No. 200412881 in Taiwan; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,801,166; 4,252,382; 5,466,060; 5,577,821; 5,722,750; 6,145,945; 6,220,683 B1; 6,254,210 B1; 6,296,338 B1; 6,390,575 B1; 6,454,372 B1; 6,655,763 B2; 6,715,851 B1; 6,820,954 B2; 6,851,773 B2, and 6,860,574 B2; US Patent Early Publication Nos. US 2002/0089273 A1, US 2005/0017613 A1, and US 2005/0062379 A1; and Japanese Patent Nos. 5-15790, and 2562231 is also the prior art the applicant of the present invention is familiar with.

Whereas most of the locators of the prior art as described above relate to a “temporary” elasticity retaining function, the bearing carrier is vulnerable to displacement by accident; others provided with mandatory locating function are found with the flaw that the entire assembly of release mechanism adapted to the locator gets too complicate that requires a compact design.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a locator for the bearing carrier to overcome those flaws found with the prior art. To achieve the purpose, the present invention comprises a bearing carrier between a carrying rail and a sliding rail, a support holder provided at the front end of the carrying rail for the sliding rail to rest on for sliding. The carrying rail comprises a retaining surface thereon. A stopper unit disposed to the bearing carrier contains a locating portion and a release portion. The locating portion contains a stopper end disposed relatively to the retaining surface of the carrying rail; and the release portion has a protrusion disposed in relation to a side panel of the bearing carrier at where the rollers are provided. In the status not subject to any external force applied, the top of the protrusion is higher than the spherical apex of the rollers. Once the sliding rail is pulled out in relation to the carrying rail, the bearing carrier moves to where the support holder is located so that the bearing carrier may have the stopper end of the locating portion of the stopper unit to hold against the retaining surface of the carrying rail, thus to prevent the bearing carrier to retreat in relation to the support holder. When the sliding rail is inserted in relation to the carrying rail, each outer side of both edges of the sliding rail presses against the protrusion of the release portion of the stopper unit, thus to disengage the stopper end of the locating portion from the retaining surface of the carrying rail for the bearing carrier to move backwards.

Accordingly, when compared to the prior art the present invention provides the following advantages:

-   -   a. The design of the stopper unit on the bearing carrier         achieves compact construction for the entire slide, thus to help         lower production cost; and     -   b. The stopper unit can be released simply by the construction         of the sliding rail without further processing on the sliding         rail, thus to simplify the manufacturing process of the slide.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a construction of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a local construction of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a fifth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a sixth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view showing a local construction of a seventh preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing extension executed by the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view showing a status that a bearing carrier is located in the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing insertion executed by the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is another schematic view showing insertion executed by the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic view showing a status that the bearing carrier is released in the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is another schematic view yet showing insertion executed by the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic view showing a local construction of an eighth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a first preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a fixed rail (1), a carrying rail (2), and a sliding rail (3). Two ball bearings (11) are disposed in a pair of channels defined between the fixed rail (1) and the carrying rail (2). A bearing carrier (4) containing rollers (41) is disposed between the carrying rail (2) and the sliding rail (3). In the event of a two-section slide, the form of either of the fixed rail (1) or the carrying rail (2) is changed to accommodate the bearing carrier (4) and a locating structure to be described later for connecting the sliding rail (3). However, the design of the two-section slide has been already taught in many prior art and known to anyone who is familiar with this art; therefore, no preferred embodiment and accompanying drawings will be given here. Referring to FIG. 2, the present invention is characterized in that a support holder (5) is disposed at the front end of the carrying rail (2) for the sliding rail (3) to rest on for sliding. A retaining surface (22) is provided on the carrying rail (2). As illustrated in FIG. 2, the retaining surface (22) is formed by an area around the edge of a slot on each of both sides of a rising plane (21) on the inner side of the carrying rail (2); or alternatively as illustrated in FIG. 3, a retaining surface (22 a) is formed by an end surface of a protruding plate by punching both sides of a rising plane (21 a) on the inner side of a carrying rail (2 a).

A stopper unit (6) is disposed on both sides of the bearing carrier (4). On end of the stopper unit (6) formed by cutting a hollowed slot (43) on a side panel (42) of the bearing carrier (4) is connected to the body of the side panel (42) and inwardly curved at a certain inclination. The stopper unit (6) includes a locating portion (61) and a release portion (62). A stopper end (611) is disposed on the locating portion (61) in relation to the retaining surface (22) of the carrying rail (2) and the release portion (62) is provided with a protrusion (612) in relation to the side panel (42) of the bearing carrier (4) where the rollers (41) are provided. Without being subject to external force applied to the release portion (62), the top of the protrusion (621) is at a level higher than that of the spherical apex of the rollers (41). Alternatively as illustrated in FIG. 4, a protrusion (621 a) is a nipple fixed to a mounting hole (622 a) of a release portion (62 a), or as illustrated in FIG. 5, a protrusion (621 b) is a convex directly formed by punching on a release portion (62 b).

Now referring to FIG. 6, a stopper unit (6 a) is disposed on both sides of a curved plate (7 a) and the curved plate (7 a) is fixed to a long and narrow section (44 a) of a bearing carrier (4 a). The stopper unit (6 a) is formed by having cut a hollowed slot (71 a) on each of both side panels of the curved plate (7 a). One end of the stopper unit (6 a) connects the body of the curved plate (7 a) and is curved inwardly at a certain inclination. Alternatively as illustrated in FIG. 7, a stopper unit (6 b) is disposed at one end of a curved plate (7 b) with the curved plate (7 b) fixed to each of both sides of a bearing carrier (4 b). One end of the stopper unit (6 b) connects the curved plate (7 b) and is curved inwardly at a certain inclination. Furthermore, a stopper unit (6 c) is disposed to both sides of a curved plate (7 c) as illustrated in FIG. 8. A locking plate (72 c) is disposed to each of the front end and the rear end of the curved plate (7 c) to respectively connect two ends facing each other from two separately disposed bearing carriers (4 c, 4 c′). The stopper unit (6 c) is formed by cutting a hollowed slot (71 c) at each of both side panels of the curved plate (7 c) with one end of the stopper unit (6 c) connecting the body of the curved plate (7 c) and curved inwardly at a certain inclination.

Accordingly, when the sliding rail (3) is pulled and extended in relation to the carrying rail (2), the sliding rail (3) moves for a range approximately twice greater than that by the bearing carrier (4) due to that both the sliding rail (3) and the carrying rail (2) are interlinked by having the rollers (41) of the bearing carrier (4) as the rolling medium. Once the sliding rail (3) is fully extended, the bearing carrier (4) as designed for its general travel moves to where closer to the support holder (5) as illustrated in FIG. 9. Meanwhile, when the sliding rail (3) is pulled out in relation to the carrying rail (2), the bearing carrier (4) is driven to hold against the support holder (5) at where the stopper unit (6) of the bearing carrier (4) is in relation to the retaining surface (22) of the carrying rail (2). When the rear end of the sliding rail (3) clears off the stopper unit (6) of the bearing carrier (4) as illustrated in FIG. 10, the locating portion (61) curved inwardly at a certain inclination from the stopper unit (6) has its stopper end (611) to hold against the retaining surface (22) of the carrying rail (2) to restrict the bearing carrier (4) from moving backwards, thus to firmly secure the bearing carrier (4) at the support holder (5).

As illustrated in FIG. 11, when the sliding rail (3) is inserted into the carrying trail (2) once again, the rear section of the sliding rail (3) passes through the support holder (5), and once the rear end of the sliding rail (3) reaches the stopper unit (6) of the bearing carrier (4) and continues to penetrate as illustrated in FIGS. 12, 13, each outer side of both edges of the sliding rail (3) compresses against the protrusion (621) of the release portion (62) thus to push the locating portion (61) connected to the release portion (62) for the stopper end (611) to disengage from the retaining surface (22) of the carrying rail (2). Therefore, the locating of the bearing carrier (4) is released. Furthermore, as illustrated in FIG. 14, when the sliding rail (3) continues to push in, the bearing carrier (4) moves as driven by the free sliding rail (3).

In the preferred embodiment described above, the stopper unit (6) is disposed at where between both ends of the bearing carrier (4). In the event that the bearing carrier (4) is made in a smaller size as illustrated in FIG. 15, a stopper end (6 d) is disposed at the rear end of a bearing carrier (4 d). 

1. A slide bearing carrier locator including a sliding rail, a carrying rail, and a bearing carrier; the sliding rail penetrating and connecting the carrying rail to extend by sliding; a support holder being disposed at a front end of the carrying rail for the sliding rail to rest on for sliding; the carrying rail comprising a retaining surface thereon; the bearing carrier being disposed with rollers to slide between the sliding rail and the carrying rail; a stopper unit being provided to the bearing carrier; the stopper unit containing a locating portion and a release portion; the, locating portion containing a stopper end disposed in relation to the retaining surface of the carrying rail; and the release portion containing a protrusion disposed in relation to a side panel of the bearing carrier where the rollers are provided.
 2. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the retaining surface of the carrying rail is an edge of a slot.
 3. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the retaining surface of the carrying rail is an end surface of a protruding plate.
 4. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the stopper unit is formed by cutting a hollowed slot on the side panel of the bearing carrier with one end of the stopper unit connected to the side panel and inwardly curved for a certain inclination.
 5. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the stopper unit is disposed on both sides of a curved plate; the curved plate is fixed to a long and narrow section of the bearing carrier, each of both side panels of the curved plate is cut into a hollowed slot to form the stopper unit; and one end of the stopper unit is connected to the curved plate and inwardly curved for a certain inclination.
 6. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the stopper unit is disposed at one end of a curved plate with the curved plate fixed to both sides of the bearing carrier and one end of the stopper unit connected to the curved plate and inwardly curved for a certain inclination.
 7. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the stopper unit is disposed on both sides of a curved plate, each of front and rear ends of the curved plate is provided with a locking plate connected to each of both ends facing each other of the bearing carrier, the stopper unit is formed by cutting a hollowed slot on each of both side panels of the curved plate; one end of the stopper unit is connected to the curved plate and inwardly curved at a certain inclination.
 8. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the protrusion is a nipple fixed to a mounting hole of the release portion.
 9. The slide bearing carrier locator of claim 1, wherein the protrusion is a convex formed punched on the release portion. 